Becoming a Monster

Chapter 672: Chapter 671: The Real Ailetta Died

No one had time to question why someone as terrifying as Noah had suddenly become so angry.

Only after God’s servants interfered did many of them truly begin to wonder what Bailey’s connection to such a demon could possibly be.

Morvyr, on the other hand, was startled for a different reason.

He had never pictured the devil having any remote attachments to anyone besides his own, let alone a human. And even after seeing it for himself, he found it hard to understand what those attachments meant.

From where Morvyr stood, Noah cared about these people. His reaction to the fact that there was a chance that they wanted him dead was proof enough.

But at the same time, he seemed prepared to kill them without hesitation.

Morvyr wasn’t sure what to make of that.

Normally, an attachment like this created weaknesses that others could exploit. Someone hesitated when a person they cared about stood against them.

They made exceptions they otherwise wouldn’t, overlooked things they normally couldn’t, or allowed themselves to be manipulated because losing that person mattered more than whatever they had done.

Morvyr saw none of that from Noah.

Whatever attachment remained between him and these people hadn’t earned them any protection from him. If anything, Morvyr was beginning to understand that being someone Noah cared about didn’t give them the freedom to do whatever they wanted.

However, he did learn that he did value those connections once they were made.

That was something Morvyr would have to remember.

Especially if he intended to continue getting closer to the devil.

What he wanted to understand now was exactly how the humans had formed such a connection with Noah in the first place, so he could replicate it.

—

Thalric was just as surprised by Noah’s reaction, although for entirely different reasons.

Thalric had held onto that connection as a possible lifeline from the moment he learned about it. He never expected it to be enough on its own to prevent the fight, but if there was even a chance Bailey or one of the others could still reach Noah, it was worth hoping for.

The problem was that everything he had learned from their little group had given him little reason to believe those connections had ever been particularly strong.

Barely a handful of them genuinely believed Noah had been a good person. Even when they spoke about the times he helped them, Noah always sounded like an outsider. Someone who was there when they needed him and helped because he could, but never truly became one of them.

Now, Thalric was beginning to understand that they might not have understood Noah nearly as well as they thought.

The anger he had just witnessed didn’t come from someone who had never cared.

And strangely enough, that realization helped Thalric understand a little more about how the person they described could’ve become the one standing before him now.

Power could change a person. Thalric had lived long enough to see that happen more times than he could remember.

But deep betrayal from your own kind could create a monster.

Looking at Noah now, Thalric couldn’t help wondering how many times someone had needed to cross that line before he became willing to strip away what made him human.

That realization should’ve strengthened Thalric’s hopes. If those bonds truly mattered to Noah, then perhaps the possibility he had been holding onto wasn’t as unlikely as he’d believed.

After witnessing the monsters they would have to face, Thalric didn’t believe that anyone would disagree with him this time.

Yet that hope depended entirely on what Bailey said next.

Because Thalric was also beginning to understand what would happen if she gave Noah an answer he didn’t want to hear.

Noah didn’t strike him as someone who would be satisfied with killing only Bailey. If he believed the others had betrayed him as well, Thalric could already imagine him going out of his way to make sure every one of them paid.

Which meant losing here would no longer end with their deaths.

There would be nothing stopping Noah from going to Ashenveil himself and finding the others.

Bailey seemed to realize the same thing.

The pressure she felt from Noah’s first question was nothing compared to what she felt now. She had already learned that his warning hadn’t been an empty threat. Noah had taken her silence as an answer, and after moving on, he barely gave her enough time to process his next question before expecting another.

Only this time, staying silent wouldn’t affect just her.

Bailey had come here because she couldn’t risk losing the last person she couldn’t afford to lose. It’s not that she didn’t care about the others, but nearly all of them also had that one special person that they couldn’t go without anymore.

Yet by coming here, she had somehow put the others in danger as well, and if she let Noah take her silence however he wanted, she had no idea what he would do to them afterward.

That thought finally gave her enough strength to speak.

“They aren’t a part of this! None of them know that I came here. This has nothing to do with them!”

The words came out almost as a cry, with tears already beginning to surface as Bailey was forced to imagine what Noah might do if he believed otherwise.

She hadn’t even realized that she had practically said the same thing twice.

All that mattered was making Noah understand that whatever he thought about her decision to come here, the others had nothing to do with it.

Noah didn’t have the chance to respond.

Now that Bailey had finally found the strength to speak, she wasn’t going to give him one. If she was going to tell Noah the truth, then she was going to tell him everything and make sure he understood all the pain she blamed him for.

“You want to know why I’m here? Blake died right in front of me!”

The fear that had nearly prevented Bailey from speaking was still there, but now she had all the anger she’d been holding onto for so long to push against it.

“You watched us fight that thing! You watched Blake die, and you didn’t do anything! It wasn’t until Ailetta begged you to help that you finally did!”

Her voice grew louder as the memory returned.

“And when you did, you killed it so easily!”

That was the part Bailey had never been able to accept. She could still remember how quickly Noah dealt with the zombie after Ailetta finally convinced him to interfere.

After watching the zombie kill nearly all of them before they could even do anything, Noah had killed it so quickly that Bailey could only believe he had possessed the strength to save them from the beginning.

“You could’ve done that before Blake died! You could’ve helped us from the beginning, but you didn’t! You let him die right in front of us when you could’ve saved him!”

Bailey’s tears kept falling as her attention finally shifted to Ailetta.

“And then you took her too.”

Her expression twisted as she stared at the monster standing beside Noah.

“No… you killed Ailetta. Whatever that thing is, it isn’t her.”

Bailey knew what everyone had told her. She knew what Noah and Ailetta claimed had happened, but nothing she had seen since then could make her believe that the creature standing there was still the same person she had known.

“Ailetta cared about us! She wouldn’t have looked at us the way that thing did! You don’t just become a monster and suddenly stop caring about everyone who was your friend!”

The longer Bailey stared at Ailetta, the harder it became to control herself.

“Either she was lying to us the entire time we knew her, or the real Ailetta died when you turned her into that thing.”

A strange smile began to form on Ailetta’s face as she listened.

She could feel the other her struggling somewhere deep within her soul. Bailey’s words had hurt her.

Pain and sadness rose from the lingering piece of herself that still remembered Bailey as a friend, and under any other circumstances, feeling it react so strongly might have given Ailetta a reason to be concerned.

Instead, the longer she felt those emotions, the harder it became to keep the excitement from showing in her eyes.

Ailetta had been trying to completely rid herself of that lingering part of her old self for some time now, and she could feel just how close Bailey was bringing her to finally doing it.

If hearing Bailey say these things could cause this much pain, then killing Bailey with her own hands might be enough to tip the last remaining scale within her soul and finally leave nothing behind that could continue fighting against what she had become.

Of course, that realization went both ways.

Her old self could feel what she wanted just as easily as Ailetta could feel her pain, and almost immediately, she felt that lingering part of her begin struggling harder.

It was slowly trying to climb back toward the surface, desperately trying to regain enough influence to stop her before she ever had the chance.

Ailetta quickly forced the smile from her face.

She knew better than to let what was happening inside her become obvious, especially with Noah standing so close, but there was little she could do about the slightly crazed look beginning to show in her eyes.